Set This Idea to Music: A Stray Cat Has 9 Lives

By THOMAS STAUDTER

Published: April 9, 2006

IN the early 1980's, Lee Rocker earned international fame as the bassist for the Stray Cats, a rockabilly trio born in a garage in Massapequa. So when he played at the Rodeo Bar in Manhattan last month with his new band, a lively crowd of roots-rock partisans packed the house.

If Mr. Rocker needed any extra inspiration, he had only to look at a table 10 feet from the stage, where relatives -- including his parents, Stanley and Naomi Drucker -- were sitting.

The Druckers are well-known musicians -- he is the principal clarinetist (and longest-serving member) of the New York Philharmonic; she is a clarinetist who has taught at Hofstra University since 1969 and has been a director of the American Chamber Ensemble even longer.

Mr. Rocker had not played in the New York metropolitan area in a few years, so the Druckers, eager to hear their rockin' son again first hand, were settled in prime seats early on.

After Mr. Rocker climbed onto the small stage, he nodded to his drummer, Jimmy Sage, that he was ready and began slap-plucking notes from his acoustic bass. Brophy Dale and Buzz Campbell, playing guitar, quickly joined in.

And Mr. and Mrs. Drucker put in earplugs.

Before the show, Mr. Rocker, 44 years old, whose given name is Leon Drucker, sat in the restaurant section awaiting the band's sound check. ''It's definitely a blast being back in New York,'' he said. ''I walk around as much as I can to take it all in.''

Sporting two earrings in each lobe and wearing a big silver chain, Mr. Rocker stood out among the late-afternoon diners, and before long a fan approached to say hello.

Mr. Rocker, who now lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., with his wife, Deborah, and their two children, said he did not spend a lot of time thinking about his musical past -- ''It's not in my nature'' -- but looks to the future.

With good reason: After several years performing as a solo artist and producing recordings on his own, he is now signed with Alligator Records, a top independent label. His new CD, ''Racin' the Devil,'' is moving up the Americana and Triple-A radio charts, said Bruce Iglauer, the president and founder of Alligator.

''This is Lee's big moment to step out from the past and establish his presence as an artist in his own right,'' Mr. Iglauer said by phone from Chicago.

For Mr. Rocker and his fellow Stray Cats -- the guitarist and singer Brian Setzer and the drummer Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell), all pals in Massapequa -- the past included a spectacular rise in the music business.

Mr. Rocker started off playing cello, which he never liked to practice. Once he moved to the bass in his early teens, though, he needed little encouragement from his parents to practice, he said.

He was sneaking in through the back door at Long Island nightclubs, which he was too young enter legally, for gigs with various blues bands before falling in with Mr. Setzer and Slim Jim Phantom. They shared Mr. Rocker's fascination with early rockabilly records by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, which Mr. Rocker discovered at the Massapequa Public Library.

Rehearsals were in the Druckers' garage, turned into a music studio so Mr. Rocker and his older sister, Rosanne Drucker (a singer who divides her career between Nashville and New York), could perform as loudly as they wanted.

They started out as the Tom Cats in September 1979 before going to London the following June, where a new manager renamed them the Stray Cats.

Mr. Drucker said: ''Lee was only 17, so letting him go to England was a little scary. But we told him it was really not that far away and we could send him air fare home, if need be.''

Mrs. Drucker said they likened the trip to a summer at a music camp. ''He was entitled to what he wanted, with his talent, and we were supportive of him,'' she said. ''He could always go back to school to become an accountant or a lawyer, we said to him, but some things you have to try when you're young.''

The band scored hits in England almost immediately, with songs like ''Rock This Town'' and ''Stray Cat Strut.''

When it came time for the Stray Cats to sign a record contract in Britain, the New York Philharmonic was touring in Europe, and the Druckers were able to easily celebrate their son's good fortune with him in London -- and co-sign the contract.

The Stray Cats released their American debut album, ''Built for Speed,'' in 1982, and their popularity soared. Two years later, however, the band, which Mr. Rocker said had been ''an ugly democracy all along,'' broke up. Mr. Rocker said the band's meteoric existence felt like ''15 years packed into 4.''

After working in another band with Slim Jim Phantom, Mr. Rocker ventured out on his own and eventually played behind some of his musical heroes, like the pioneering rockabilly guitarists Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's longtime accompanist), as well as George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

''Lee's a star in his own right,'' Mr. Moore said from Nashville. ''He keeps good rhythm and complements everybody without outshining them. Then, on his own shows, he plays a more active bass.''

That described him at the Rodeo Bar, singing in a powerful baritone and picking up his big bass and playing it like a guitar a few times. Near the end of the show, Mr. Rocker introduced ''Stray Cat Strut'' as ''the sixth-best song ever written in my dad's garage,'' and Mrs. Drucker got up and danced, while her husband sat and smiled.

Photos: Lee Rocker with his parents, Naomi and Stanley Drucker, after a performance at the Rodeo Bar. They needed earplugs.; Lee Rocker, the bassist for the Stray Cats in the 1980's, in Manhattan last month. (Photographs by Richard Perry/The New York Times)